Chef Mike Decker originally moved to New York City to open a restaurant. Six years later, above Mulberry Street in Little Italy, the Louisiana native has turned his knife skills to handcrafting custom wooden guitars.
His tiny apartment has become a workshop packed with rosewood and spruce, and woodworking tools made from old chef’s knives. The air is full of the smell of sawdust and naphtha, and his stove is more likely to be used for melting hide glue than cooking up a meal.